By DAN BYRNE
WAKEFIELD— Coming into Friday night’s game against Stoneham, the Warriors’ girls’ varsity basketball team had lost their previous two contests to Woburn and Belmont.
A matchup with the Spartans proved to be the proper medicine to put Wakefield’s season on the right track once again as they claimed a 54-43 victory.
Following the win, head coach Jason Pavey spoke about how no game is easy saying, “We’re going to get everyone’s best shot. For whatever reason, teams play harder when they come in here, we just have to throw the records away.
“I give Stoneham a ton of credit, they’re a super scrappy team, they didn’t give up, they made some big shots. We haven’t played at home since before Christmas. It’s been a while, the kids were ready to get back out here.”
A pair of Emma’s led the way for the Warriors on Friday night.
EMMA ICKES set the tone in Wakefield’s win over Stoneham, scoring 9 of her 14 points in the 1st quarter. (File Photo)
“Tonight it was Emma Ickes in the first half,” Pavey said of his standout sophomore. “But offensively, we’re a well-rounded team and we’re still trying to work out what our offensive identity is.”
Ickes had a great start leading the way in the first quarter with 9 of her 14 points in the first frame. Her offense put the Warriors up 10 points after one quarter, 16-6.
Stoneham fought back in the second quarter, outscoring the Warriors 17-12 and cutting their defecit down to 8 points at halftime with Wakefield up 28-20 at the break.
Senior captain Emma Quinn led all scorers with 16 points, most of which were scored in the 3rd quarter.
Wakefield came out from halftime on fire with Quinn and junior Brooklyn Calder knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers right off the bat, sending the Warriors back up by 11.
After a Stoneham basket broke the ice for the Spartans, Quinn splashed another 3-ball, kicking the lead up to 12. Quinn scored again following some missed Spartans free-throws and the Warriors had amassed their largest lead of the night, up 39-25.
Stoneham finished the 3rd quarter on a 7-4 run and Wakefield held a 43-35 lead after three quarters of play.
In the 4th quarter, junior Shea Suntken got the scoring started, as the Warriors’ starting point guard had 4 of her 11 points in the final frame.
The Warriors then got a 3 from Quinn and Ickes added the last of her 14 points. Savannah Cummings had 2 of her 5 points in the 4th quarter to help the Warriors to the 54-43 win.
“I felt like in the second half, especially the 4th quarter, we did a really good job of executing offensively,” noted Pavey. “I thought we got some really quality shots down the stretch. Emma Quinn hit some big 3’s for us, Brooklyn was huge, Shea and Aliza (Margolis) were attacking the basket.
“We don’t have one kid that you can go box-and-one on,” the coach added. “And if you try to faceguard one of our kids, we have 3 or 4 others who can get the ball and score.”
To wrap things up Pavey talked about the upcoming week.
“Winchester is another awesome team in our league,” he said. “They have the returning League MVP, so we’re definitely going to have to clean some stuff up if we’re going to match up with them.”
The Warriors hosted the Red and Black last night with Wakefield coming out on top, 63-50, improving to 5-2 on the season. A full story will appear at a later date. Wakefield will travel to Burlington on Friday night at 5:30 p.m.
SHEA SUNTKEN had 11 points in Wakefield’s win over Stoneham on Friday night. The Warriors (5-2) will travel to Burlington (1-7) on Friday night at 5:30 p.m. (File Photo)
